Any true fan of great electronic music recognizes Niko Marks as a dynamic artist of the Detroit house/techno movement. He began recording in the early part of the nineties, releasing innovative and soulful house, techno, plus a mixture of other music genres. The wide variety of genres he takes on, only testifies to his adaptability and talent in being able to engage a multitude of different sounds and in the process create futuristic music.
It would later be the fortunate acquisition of a Fender Rhodes electric piano, EMU SP-1200, Korg DDD5 drum machine and a Fostex 4-track recorder, which marked the beginning of the rise of one of today’s most innovative artists. Niko is what you might label as a triple threat as his talent can be found in the roles he smoothly balances as a vocalist, musician, producer and songwriter.
One of the many forward moving phases in his musical career included teaming up with Submerge Records founder, Michael Banks to formulate a vocal house production crew called “Members of the House”. Niko also collaborated with Raphael Merriweathers under alias group band names, Unit 2 and 365 Black. This particular mission stemmed forth the high-spirited grooves, "Sunshine" - released on Happy Records, "Homeland" and "Keep Your Head Up" written by Niko and Merriweathers - released on 430 West Records.
In the infamous year of 1999, he produced a project called "Niko Marks & The City Boy Players" which featured Eddie Fowlkes and included several artists and musicians from Detroit. The project moved from techno/house to soul, R&B, Disco to hard electronic - resulting in much fun, lots of grooves, and a profusion of great vocals and classic songs.
As an artist, his releases have been signed by some of the world’s most established recording labels: Characters, Ideal, EMI, New Religion, R&S, Crammed Discs, React, Delsin, Yore Records, Planet E, Submerge and Puzzlebox. Niko has also lent his skills to remixes for artists such as Tom Tom Club, Andy Vaz, Herschel Boone, Aux 88, Helder Russo, Universal Principles, Amp Fiddler, Eric D. Clark and many more.
His music has been featured by DJ’s such as Dave Clarke, Giles Peterson, JaBig, DJ Fingers, Carl Craig, and Andrew Duke, to name a few.
His current collaborations are with producers and artists: Amp Fiddler, Kevin Saunderson, Ripperton, Tom Tom Club, Kid Ginseng, Andy Vaz,Trevor Deep Jr, Davina Bussey, Carlos Nilmmns, Jason Grove and L.A. Williams.
Amongst the latest album projects are: “Day of Knowing”, “Dark Ages”, “Love You Forever”, “Voice Box Detroit Vol. 2”, “Various Characters EP”, “Soul Meter”, “Disclosure” and “Love of My Life”.
An artist who defies generic boundaries, Niko continues to write, produce and release cutting-edge music primarily for Planet e and U2XProductions. If you like what Niko Marks has been creating so far…you’re in for a revolutionary ride…